The sun shone brightly and it felt more like a middle of a summer than spring. The air was filled with the buzz cicadas made, but while Bill found it mostly annoying, Alex couldn’t get enough of it. It was a sign of them finally arriving at a place with a pleasant climate. He was long fed up with the long winters and rainy summers in the Holy empire.

Judging by their pace, Alex calculated they had walked at least two and a half thousand kilometers. It was almost the distance from Stockholm to Rome in a direct line, but they covered it on foot. Their warm leather outfits long became a burden and they exchanged those for more comfortable and inconspicuous linen attire. The game they hunted on the way served both as food and a currency to exchange for goods thus the brothers were quite well off.

Currently they were reasonably dressed and equipped – both with swords while Bill also carried a bow and a quiver of arrows. The older brother had a large longsword strapped on his back – one in a similar size he had before. Alex pointed out that with it he looked too suspicious for a hunter, but Bill’s answer was – he felt naked without his sword and was ready to take the risk.

On the other hand Alex had a weird shaped sword, also strapped on his back, but hung upside down. The weird shape was compared to the traditions of the Holy empire, but back in Alex’s first life such sword was known as rapier, except this one didn’t have elegant or beautiful hilt. It looked unimpressive – almost like a thin, straight tree branch, but Bill insisted for Alex to train and use such weapon. They even stopped for ten days at a smaller village to let the local blacksmith craft one.

Since there was nothing better to do, Alex decided to humor his brother only to recognize his martial talent soon after once again. As soon as Bill demonstrated the technique he invented specially for his younger brother to learn, Alex immediately realized it’s value. Even though it was not as manly as the regular swordplay, it fit his character like a glove. Obviously Bill had spent quite some time in developing the technique and put a lot of thought into it.

It revolved around a single thrust and retreat, but in addition to those moves there was another, peculiar one – with a single motion Alex would unsheathe his sword, by grabbing the handle at the level of his butt, and then perform the thrust. While in theory it was basically the same as unsheathing sword from the side or shoulder, the thin, one meter long bade on Alex’s back was almost invisible and the thrust performed in a lightning speed looked more like a shameful and clumsy, badly aimed punch.

Of course, the technique was not at all easy to perform. Not only it had to be deadly accurate and penetrate the eye or neck of the opponent, it had to be incredibly fast. That was the reason Bill insisted for Alex to practice thrusts for months while they were on the way with the expedition to the west. At that time Alex understood the necessity, but now, with the new toy in hand, he approached the exercise with a completely different mindset.

The moment Alex performed the thrust in ‘acceptable’ fashion, Bill immediately increased the difficulty – he added the application of the holy power. From then on Alex stepped into a completely different world. For the first days his whole body ached and he barely dragged his feet, but his eyes sparkled with determination. He caught a glimpse of how it was to move at the speed bishop Phelippe or even pope himself did!

Obviously his brothers skills compared to those two old timers lacked a bit, but he was a great teacher. They even stopped for half a month at the side of a picturesque lake for Alex to practice how to properly revolve the holy power in his legs and feet to achieve the lightning fast motion.

At some point Alex even got a bit cocky and challenged his brother to a small contest – only to be smacked with a tree branch on the head. Turns out his ‘lightning fast’ reflexes were moves in slow motion in Bill’s eyes. But then it was time for Bill to be surprised. Not only Alex wasn’t dispirited, he began to practice with a new inspiration. What Bill didn’t know was – Alex had, at least from his own understanding, infinite time to learn and the only thing he could loose was his teacher. He regretted the departure from his last life before ‘milking’ the headmaster dry from knowledge, but he was not going to make the same mistake again.

Both of them were not in a rush and enjoyed this leisure time and it was already late summer when they arrived to the kingdom of Azil.

While the previous period was a paradise for Alex, now Bill felt as if he had finally found a home. From the moment they crossed the border and arrived at the first settlement, they saw well trained men and women of different age, going around their everyday lives. The peculiarity was – all of them were armed with beautiful weapons – be it a sword, axe, spear of bow.

“Sigh. Now I understand why the Holy empire dares to stretch their fangs only to the east and west.” Alex said.

“Mh?” Dazed by the sight Bill missed most of what his brother said.

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“The chicks here …” Alex smiled and waved at three girls of a large stature passing by the two strange looking youths. Noticing him, trio blushed and giggled, but waved back, “You see, if anyone came and tried to ‘bless’ them against their will, their testicles would be directly torn off and showed down their throats.”

“You really do like women, don’t you?” Bill asked, but it sounded more like a statement.

“Ehhh, you, army boy.” Alex patted his brother’s shoulder as if he was a small kid, “After we get to the capital, I’ll organize few for you. And then … then you’ll stay in this country forever with a purpose of protecting them … hahaha!”

Bill blushed with embarrassment, but ignored his brother’s teasing. What could a kid half his age know about women anyway.

From then on their journey slowed down even more. They traveled from village to village, sometimes staying at one place for several days and doing chores for a poor salary or sometimes even only for food. Both used this time to practice azilian, the local language as well as train together with the locals.

While the simple peasants and hunters didn’t know any fancy techniques, they all had a basic understanding of the force of nature, or how they called it here – Qi. Alex was already familiar with this term, but Bill gladly accepted it to use instead of ‘the holy power’. The interesting part was – while not everyone was capable of displaying Qi, all people were physically well developed.

Of course, it didn’t mean the two brothers arrived at some kind of ‘Shangrila’. The life here was hard and the social roles were strictly defined. In addition, the inequality was as prevalent as in the Holy empire. Brothers were only well received by the simple people because they were also poor and homeless.

In the late autumn, when they finally arrived to the capital, also called Azil, the difference between poor and rich became even more drastic. Alex expressed readiness to quickly elevate their social status, but Bill forbade him any form of thievery. Even though the younger brother got upset with that, he understood very well that the risks were too high and in the end, complied.

It allowed him to focus on the long postponed priority – finding a library in order to learn more about the reincarnation. Besides the royal palace, there was only one place in Azil that held higher esoteric knowledge – the War academy and to get accepted became Alex’s number one goal.

Geographically Azil was the perfect place to live in. Located on four large hills on a coast of a deep blue sea with a pleasant weather all year round, maybe except the middle of the summer when it got too hot. The surrounding lands were fertile and provided inhabitants with enough food, although there was always a difference what a poor man and aristocrat ate. In many ways it was similar to Rome or Baracelona and Alex decided to settle down here until he exhausted all the possibilities of gaining knowledge he desired.

An unexpected bonus was the ban on carrying large weaponry, thus most of the citizens, except for the guards, of course, carried only knives or daggers. To Alex it was almost as if he traveled back in time and arrived from US to the Europe for the first time and found out that no sane person owned a gun, much less carried it.

In Azil citizens left their weapons at home, but travelers had to store them at a special storage belonging to the king thus guaranteeing the safety of the items. This system was surprisingly simple and advanced at the same time and somewhat even didn’t fit the medieval society people lived in.

It was an early morning and currently Alex was standing in front of a large gate. Endless stream of young people dressed in similar white linen outfits flowed inside. He, in his shabby clothing immediately drew attention of the four burly guards – also all dressed in white linen clothing, except they held silvery spears and shields.

One of the guards took a long step and immediately positioned himself between Alex and the entrance. He didn’t say anything and his intimidating posture was sufficient to drive away any nosy passerby. Unfortunately this weirdo not only didn’t move away, but smiled and greeted him.

“Hi, I was wondering what are the rules of accepting new students here.” Alex politely said. When the man furrowed his brows in displeasure, Alex continued trying to talk in the best azilian he could muster, “Since this is a public educational facility, the rules of accepting new students also have to be public, right? Please point the direction where can I learn them.”

The more Alex talked, the more guard disliked him – this kid looked weak and used difficult words as if mocking him. But then he got an idea and with a wide grin pointed his spear in the opposite direction from the gate. Immediately laughter filled the surroundings. Quite a few people overheard Alex talking and jeered at the pauper being humiliated.

But it was not the first time someone laughed at him and, in fact, Alex never gave a damn about being humiliated.

He said, “Oh! Great! I think I can find your superior there as well to thank him for your work. Or course, in case I’ll get lost I’ll come back again.”

Suddenly, before the guard could react, someone pulled Alex away.

“Kid! Are you tired of living?!” A youth around the age of sixteen in a similar white student outfit, asked. He was together with a girl of similar age and they honestly seemed to be concerned about this weirdo, “If you piss them off, they can easily kill you and think of a reason later. No one would blame them.”

“In that case, thanks for coming to the rescue.” Alex nodded, “So you two also were from poor backgrounds thus decided to help me out, right?”

“Mhm.” The girl nodded, “If you wish to join the academy – the entrance exams are on the first day of the year, but they only accept people under the age of twelve. Even if you claim you are ten years old, academy has Qi techniques to verify that, so there is no need to try. You are obviously too old. Ok, we need to run! Good luck!”

The duo quickly departed and left Alex behind scratching his head. He was not worried about his age. Because of all the steroids, also known as the ‘Lord’s seeds’, he ate, Alex currently looked at least fifteen or sixteen years old. If there were age verifying Qi techniques, he was at a clear advantage, but it only increased his curiosity about the limits one could reach in their cultivation.